The ultimate US road trip? Scientist devises nerdy tour of 47 national parks

In a month that the US National Park Service celebrates its 100th birthday, a road trip fanatic has devised a remarkably nerdy way to see each and every one in a single epic holiday.

Randy Olson, a data scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, has used a combination of genetic algorithms and Google Maps to find the most efficient way to visit by car all 47 national parks in mainland United States.

Olson was forced to discount the 12 parks in Alaska, Hawaii and other US territories, concluding that a 14,498-mile, two-month road trip taking in each corner of the country from Maine to California would suffice.

It is later this month, on August 25, that the National Park Service marks its centenary. Founded by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, the government department is in charge of 59 national parks and tasked with preserving “unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations”.

He explained that he had to look up 2,256 directions on Google Maps to get the “true” distance between each state capital, then order the stops in such a way that the distance travelled is a small as possible.